From static to dynamic abstract data-types: An institution transformation

AbstractWe show how to extend in a canonical way a given formalism for specifying (static) data types (like usual algebraic specification frameworks) with dynamic features. What we obtain in this way is a corresponding formalism for specifying dynamic data-types based on the “state-as-algebra” approach: a dynamic data-type models a dynamically evolving system in which any state can be viewed as a static data type in the underlying formalism, and the dynamic evolution is given by operations handling configurations. Formally, our construction is a functor between two appropriate categories of (specialized) institutions